BALLSTON SPA -- The Saratoga County Law and Finance Committee on Thursday OK'd a change to the health care plan for county employees, a move that will save taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars and reduce the proposed property tax hike.

The committee met Thursday to discuss changes to the 2013 tentative budget, as well as personnel requests.

Changing health care plans will reap a savings of $402,081. As a result, the committee was able to shave 2 cents (per $1,000 of assessed value) off the proposed property tax levy hike. It reduces the proposed increase from 2.65 percent to 1.58 percent.

Another way the committee members were able to reduce the tax increase was by factoring into the tentative budget a $98,500 bid the Sewer Commission recently offered the county in exchange for nearly 15 acres of property on the unused landfill in Northumberland.

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Most of the personnel requests made by county departments were denied because of a hiring and pay increase freeze the county has enforced since the summer of 2011 in an effort to combat the county's withering general fund.

The one personnel request that was approved during the meeting was for a cleaner at the sewer district. County officials said the position badly needed to be filled and that it was possible to transfer a worker from Maplewood Manor to fill the sewer position.

Editor's note: This story has been changed to remove misinformation about the county's conflict defender position.